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[OS]US/ECON/IB - Obama vows to fight AIG bonuses

Released on 2012-10-19 08:00 GMT

Email-ID

1276477

Date

2009-03-16 22:57:32

From

mike.marchio@stratfor.com

To

os@stratfor.com

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0dd26124-125d-11de-b816-0000779fd2ac.html

Obama vows to fight AIG bonuses

By Andrew Ward in Washington and Greg Farrell in New York

Published: March 16 2009 19:29 | Last updated: March 16 2009 20:28

President Barack Obama vowed on Monday to pursue "every single legal
avenue" to block $165m in bonus payments by AIG amid mounting anger over
the stricken insurance group's use of federal bail-out funds.

His remarks came as Andrew Cuomo, the New York attorney-general, opened an
investigation into the bonuses, while congressional leaders promised
hearings on the issue.

[EMBED]

Mr Obama voiced "outrage" that a group dependent on federal funds for its
survival was topping up salaries at a time when ordinary Americans were
struggling to make ends meet.

"This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to
recklessness and greed," he said. "Under these circumstances, it's hard to
understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less
$165m in extra pay."

AIG revealed the bonuses over the weekend as part of disclosures into how
it had used about $160bn of federal funds provided last year to keep it
afloat.

Goldman Sachs and several European banks also faced scrutiny over tens of
billions of dollars funnelled to them as part of the bail-out because of
their involvement in derivatives deals with AIG.

Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who serves on the powerful House
oversight committee, on Monday threatened to open an investigation into
the relationship between AIG and Goldman Sachs, which received $13bn from
the group.

In September, Goldman confirmed AIG was a major counterparty but the
investment bank insisted that its exposures to AIG were almost completely
hedged.

The firm reiterated that stance on Monday, saying that if AIG had been
allowed to fail, Goldman would have been covered by a combination of the
cash collateral that it had forced AIG to post on some of the contracts,
and the credit default swaps that it had entered into with other banks and
insurers to guard against AIG's failure.

Barney Frank, chairman of the House financial services committee, told the
Financial Times that questions would also be raised about the payments to
foreign banks, including Germany's Deutsche Bank, and France's Societe
Generale, at a hearing on AIG On Wednesday.

Mr Obama said he had instructed Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, to use
the government's full "leverage" over AIG to resolve the bonus dispute,
while Mr Cuomo said he would take "every possible step" under New York
state law to block the bonus payments.

In a letter to Edward Liddy, AIG's chief executive, Mr Cuomo demanded a
list of employees who received the bonuses and details of the contracts
under which the payments were made.